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  Will the police state screw him again??? Probably Original Article


WINDSOR, N.C. - A man who was sentenced to die, then freed after prosecutors at his murder trial were shown to have hidden exonerating evidence, was charged Wednesday with having sex with a underage girl who is now pregnant, authorities said.

Alan Gell, 31, is charged with 14 counts each of statutory rape and indecent liberties with a minor for allegedly starting a relationship last year with a 15-year-old girl, authorities said. He also was charged with cocaine possession.

The girl, now 16, is pregnant and has told investigators that Gell may be the father, according to a search warrant.

Gell's mother, Jeannette Johnson, said in an interview that the girl told her son she was 17. Johnson also said officers found cocaine residue in a closet of a mobile home she had bought at auction for her son.

"I know Alan is not doing drugs," Johnson said. "They can pull a hair and tell that. The cocaine residue could have been something in there from a previous owner."

She also said Gell's family can't pay the $322,000 bond.

When he was arrested, Gell earned a living by speaking at anti-death penalty meetings, his mother said.

According to state law, a sexual relationship with a person under 16 is statutory rape if differences in the partners' ages is six years or more. Conviction carries a potential prison sentence of 16 to 40 years.

Gell spent nine years in prison half of it on death row after he was convicted of murdering a retired truck driver in 1995.

A judge ordered a new trial in 2002 because prosecutors withheld evidence, including a taped phone call in which the state's star witnesses said they had to "make up a story" for investigators.

Gell was acquitted at a second trial in 2004.

He has sued two investigators, a senior attorney and two former prosecutors in the Attorney General's Office. The North Carolina State Bar reprimanded both former prosecutors in 2004 for withholding the evidence.